The Blockchain Factory of Daimler Financial Services (DFS) has produced the Mobility Blockchain Platform (MBP) in conjunction with four startups. RIDDLE&CODE developed the hardware car wallet solution. Blockchain Helix provided the know your client verification of individuals, Evan Network runs the blockchain, and 51 nodes developed the smart contracts.
It’s worth stepping back and exploring why a car wallet is needed. The entire mobility sector is in flux. Every day we see ride-sharing and car-sharing expanding, but the future is in autonomous vehicles. RIDDLE&CODE quote the statistic that private car owners use their cars 5% of the time compared to fleet owners who target 70%. So there’s ample room for growth.
For car sharing or short term rentals of cars or scooters, there’s a need to make payments. One of RIDDLE&CODE’s skill areas is adapting smart card technology – like in your bank card – to work with blockchain.
The second need for a wallet is to ensure that data emanating from a car is trustworthy – so-called data provenance. So with an autonomous car, the vehicle might communicate with road-based sensors for traffic information. At a more fundamental level, odometer readings are stored on a blockchain to ensure that the car mileage is not manipulated at the point of resale.
But to make settlements or store odometer readings on a blockchain, the car needs to have an identity. Last week the MOBI alliance announced a new vehicle ID (VID) standard which is adopted in this solution.
So the RIDDLE&CODE wallet, which is a hardware box attached to a car, provides these three things: VID, data provenance and settlement.
Talking about Daimler’s involvement, CEO of RIDDLE&CODE said: “It shows an ability to continue to offer disruptive value-added services creating new marketplaces for mobility, energy and finance.”
Daimler and Mercedes already have quite a bit of blockchain experience. Daimler experimented with employees using blockchain tokens to encourage good driving. Mercedes is working on using blockchain in its supply chain. And Daimler Trucks has partnered with startup Filament on a project for remanufactured components, which use a combination of used, repaired and new components.
